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Sunday, March 4, 2012

Check the freezer before grocery time

I don't usually do Sunday posts but this was too funny not to share. I felt like our freezer contents were never going down so I had the Mr read off what was in the freezer before we head off to the stores this morning. Here's the list of what was in the freezer.

This is at the END of a grocery cycle and rarin' up for the next one! Um yeah. I think we'll just need to get produce and we'll be good to go. I could live through a 5 day grocery closure off that crap! That's not counting all of the pasta and sauces in the pantry!

The lesson is...do an inventory before you grocery shop! (This is more a note to myself)

I recently started being more aware of my expenses and am using the SP Financial program; I was amazed at how much I spend in a month on groceries! As I went through the freezer and the pantry, I found all kinds of goodies that were just waiting to be remembered!

Lately, I've been finding that all I REALLY need each week is the fresh stuff: milk, salad fixings, fruit. I keep a running list on the computer now (a draft email that's not addressed to anyone) so I only buy what I really need.

And I think if I had a Trader Joe's close by, I wouldn't be able to be so disciplined! There's some good looking things in your freezer!

Inventorying isn't really my problem, I know I have too much in there.

I could probably go for quite some time with what I have on hand. I shopped yesterday, but the rest of March my goal is to clean out my reserves and only buy dairy and produce each week.

What I really would like to do is just completely clear out my freezer, and start over. I'm pretty sure there's stuff in there that has been there since the Roosevelt administration.

When we were first married we were dead broke, we didn't go hungry but we didn't have anything extra either. We had to use the food bank a couple of times, and hubby's sister made a point of inviting us to dinner a couple times a week. Since then I have a tendency to overshop "just in case we're short next week". It's a habit I'm working to break. In the meantime a couple times a year I go through my cupboards and donate a bunch of food to the food bank. I just wish I could do the same with my freezer.

Oh yeah, I take a look at both the fridge and freezer before I head out. I also check dates and give the inside of the fridge a quick wipe down so it is organized and clean when I bring home the new loot. I am trying to empty out as much of my pantry as possible and not double up on things which means I have to go to the store more often but also forces me to plan my meals better. Enjoy your day! Dawn

I'm with another layer..,I could feed 20 people at the drop of a hat! I really need to get my freeezer items down because I need to defrost it! I have a stand up outside and a side by side freezer frig combo in the house! Oh yeah an and another combo out in the garage but that is basically being used for baking stuff, and beer for hubs friends and the kids...lol. I know right off the cuff, I have. 2 pork roasts, a bag of frozen chicken, 2 packs of steak, 2 packs of group d Turkey, the lean beef patties and a lot of veggies as well as the sweet potatoes fries, regular fries and a whole cheese pizza!

I am very meticulous about the order of the fridge, freezer and pantry. I clip coupons and make lists and am constantly trying to see what we can use before we get more. I'm very used to staying on a budget and trying to get deals because I'm a stay at home mom and we have to be frugal. We don't eat out often, so that means always staying on top of making sure we have enough healthy snacks, stuff for my kids' lunches, etc.

Usually I have got a pretty good idea of what's in the freezer and in the pantry at all times. I am obsessive like this. A few days ago I was surprised by the fact that we did not have any rice, but I cannot remember any other time something such as this has happened.

I do not do an inventory before grocery shopping. I feel as though grocery shopping is a big problem for me...I go to much, and spend too much money. I just love grocery shopping. In the last couple of weeks, I have been evaluating the money I spend at the grocery store, and I realized that I have become out of control and need to cut some of it out. My mom tells me that next time she comes for a visit, she'll just bring her shopping bags to my house and go shopping for groceries. I can definitely feed many hungry people with what I have on hand. With all of that said, I have been making some changes so that I won't keep duplicating all that I have.

Now, that just seems normal to me, lol. I don't remember if my mom did this when I was a young kid, but we moved to Utah when I was in eighth grade, and the culture tends to rub off on you whether you are Mormon or not. I grew up believing that one should have an emergency supply of food, so I almost always have at least a month's worth of food on hand. That served us really well when we had to leave our home and go travelling to keep money coming in. I stopped buying groceries except for perishables about six weeks before we left, and we still took two loaded ice chests full of frozen meat with us. We lived off that for another six weeks. Nowadays, I could probably go for about a month without shopping, but I do know most of the time what's in my freezer and pantry. I have had three embarrassing slips, though, in the past couple of weeks since we moved back into the remodeled kitchen, mostly because I forgot where I put stuff. Right now I have two loaves of bread in the freezer after thinking I had used the last of a loaf that was actually almost whole; two 5-lb bags of potatoes that are going to rot before I can use them, and almost 3 dozen eggs, because I buy them in 18-packs and thought I was out when in reality I had a new carton with only one missing. I guess we'll be having potato soup and deviled eggs for dinner in the next day or so...

a) thats bs they dont let you order smalls anymoreb) I order happy meals all the time, I'm very glad to actually. Especially at chick fil a (now they have grilled nuggets!) because you can sub out your toy for an ice dream. :)

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I've lost over 200 lbs the old fashioned way with some more to go. I'm doing this with my hubby (The Mr) and he has lost 190 lbs so far. I wanted to share my journey as well and give people with a lot of weight to lose hope that this can be done without surgery or cutting out entire food groups! Passionate about photography, cooking, traveling, DIY and anything 80's.

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